EDUPAGE> Edupage, March 03, 2003

From: Gleason Sackmann <gleason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

To: K12Newsletters <k12newsletters@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 08:09:24 -0600

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K12NewsLetters - From Educational CyberPlayGround
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From: EDUCAUSE@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: <EDUPAGE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 16:44:27 -0700
Subject: Edupage, March 03, 2003
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Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association
whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting
the intelligent use of information technology.
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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, MARCH 03, 2003
Details Revealed about Government Data Mining
New Spam Filter Only Delivers E-Mail from Approved Sources
Red Herring Shuts Down
AND
Alexandria Library Project to Build Vast Online Collection
Experts Find Fault with Current Copyright Legislation
Senator Offers Market Approach to Copyright
DETAILS REVEALED ABOUT GOVERNMENT DATA MINING
A freedom-of-information request by the Electronic Privacy Information
Center (EPIC) has uncovered information about 26 research grants
awarded for the Defense Department's controversial Total Information
Awareness (TIA) program. The Defense Department tried to block the
release of the grant information, but a federal district court ruled
that the information must be turned over. Future funding for the TIA
program has been blocked by Congress, pending an accounting of how the
program will deal with privacy issues. The grants described were
approved before Congress took action to limit funding. Grant applicants
included large and small corporations and large research universities.
According to EPIC, the grant program solicited proposals dealing with
repository technologies; collaboration, automation, and cognitive aids
technologies; and prototype system technologies.
Internet News, 27 February 2003
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/1963191
NEW SPAM FILTER ONLY DELIVERS E-MAIL FROM APPROVED SOURCES
The co-founders of AvantGo this week unveiled a new spam filter called
Qurb that aims to provide users with strict restrictions on spam by
combining a "whitelist" of approved senders with a challenge/response
mechanism. E-mail coming from a source not included on the user's
whitelist is automatically routed to a "quarantine" folder, where users
can look for legitimate mail. Mail from someone not on the list
triggers a challenge e-mail to that sender, who can choose to respond,
thereby affirming that he or she is the real sender of that message.
The Qurb user can then add that sender to the whitelist. The makers of
Qurb say the tool is difficult for spammers to sidestep while being
relatively simple for legitimate correspondents to negotiate. Critics
said restrictions like those of Qurb are too strict and onerous for
most users to use easily. Spam consultant Steve Atkins said Qurb won't
save much time because most users will look through the quarantine
folder for legitimate mail. He said there are other systems already
available that function similarly and that no one uses them.
Wired News, 3 March 2003
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,57867,00.html
RED HERRING SHUTS DOWN
After seeing its fortunes fade with the high-tech downturn, Red Herring
magazine has shut down. The magazine, widely seen as catering to and
read by an upscale technology elite, saw its advertising revenue grow
from $21 million in 1999 to $87 million in 2000, only to slide to $15.6
million last year. Tony Perkins, Red Herring's founder, said the
publication also suffered from fallout of the September 11 attacks and
of last year's numerous corporate scandals. The Industry Standard and
Upside, two competing technology magazines, have also closed their
doors in the past two years. Business 2.0, Wired, and Fast Company,
each of which is owned by a large media company, continue operations.
Perkins said he thought the magazine continued to be valuable, "but it
would have been a miracle if we had survived all this."
Associated Press, 2 March 2003 (registration req'd)
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/785972p-5628011c.html
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ALEXANDRIA LIBRARY PROJECT TO BUILD VAST ONLINE COLLECTION
A project at the new Alexandria Library in Egypt hopes to make
virtually every existing text available online. The Alexandria Library
Scholars Collective uses software called CyberBook Plus designed to
link archives of digital texts from around the world. In addition to
offering a single point of entry to access most of the world's texts,
the software includes virtual lecture halls, a hub for international
scholars, and a gateway for ordinary readers. David Wolff of
online-learning venture Fathom noted that doing any one of these
successfully would be challenging. The challenges confronting the
project include copyright, language barriers, and funding. The
project's primary sources of funding are currently the Egyptian
government and UNESCO.
New York Times, 1 March 2003 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/01/arts/01ALEX.html
EXPERTS FIND FAULT WITH CURRENT COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION
Experts speaking at a University of California at Berkeley conference
were in general agreement that copyright law is currently being applied
inappropriately. The event featured speakers from a range of companies
and institutions, representing a variety of perspectives on the issue
of copyright. Most speakers faulted the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA) and its application, saying the interests of the majority of
persons involved are not being served. Notable DMCA opponents Larry
Lessig and Edward Felten spoke out against the current state of
copyright enforcement. Alex Alben of RealNetworks also attended the
conference. He criticized a recent action by Lexmark, which has won a
preliminary injunction under the terms of the DMCA to prevent a
competitor from selling a chip that would allow Lexmark printers to
function with non-Lexmark toner cartridges. "This is a travesty," Alben
said. "This is not what we intended when we created the DMCA."
CNET, 1 March 2003
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-990689.html
SENATOR OFFERS MARKET APPROACH TO COPYRIGHT
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has suggested that the answer to ongoing
wrangling over copyright is a policy of full disclosure. If content
producers are required to explain clearly to consumers how and under
what conditions a copyrighted work can be used or copied, users can
easily decide whether they will buy it. Wyden said his approach is a
market-based one; although the government would have to specify and
enforce disclosure provisions, market forces would compel action on the
part of media companies to keep consumers. Wyden argued that the
current influence of media companies on Congress will prevent any
legislative alteration of copyright law from passing any time soon.
San Jose Mercury News, 2 March 2003
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/5298641.htm
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